Chemical evaluation of oil from field‐and storage‐damaged soybeans

In recent years, prolonged wet weather during the harvest season resulted in excessive field‐ and storagedamaged soybeans, particularly in the Southeast. As the severity of the damage increased, analysis of the oil extracted from these beans showed a corresponding increase in free fatty acids, Lovibond color, and content of oxidative deterioration products which absorb at 270 nm. In general, there was a substantial decrease in total oil content and an almost complete deterioration of phospholipids in severely damaged beans during storage. Initially, the oxidative stability of the oils decreased rapidly. After storage damage became severe, the stability increased substantially, possibly because of the formation of unidentified deterioration products which had high antioxidant properties. The study clearly showed that the processing of field‐ and storage‐damaged soybeans would result in substantial refining losses to processors and that the finished oil would be of inferior quality.